In Your
Stars?

This was my first serious attempt at poetry. It was written in exasperation
with the way fate seems to deal an uneven hand, the friend about whom this
is written having suffered illness after illness throughout her life. It
can be read simply as it is but, at the time, I was heavily immersed in
books on paganism, astrology, alchemy and the Qabalah. The imagery of all
these appear in the piece. The Shakespeare quote is at the heart of it
and provided
the title.

When aeons hang on a wild star
And the planets rage against the cosmos
How can one earth-bound soul defeat these awful powers?
But each earth-bound soul is a cosmos within itself
With as many facets as a rose cut diamond.
Fire and ice.
A powerful heart can fight against the planets’ rage
And conquer all.

Hymn of Thanks for Transformation

This is the sole product of my 'Egyptian Period'. Isis
had the guiding hand that brought me into paganism and I was devoted to
the Great Mother until I realised her spirit came from another land and
I needed to be in touch with the spirits of my own land. Nonetheless I
am very grateful for Her guidance in the formation of my path. At the time
I wrote this I had been abroad for a serious operation. The 'land of pine
and roses' is the State of Oregon, USA. For those not familiar with Kemetic
symbolism Kheperi, Ra and Atum are three aspects of the Sun God. Kheperi,
usually depicted as a scarab beetle or a scarab headed man, represents
the sun at dawn and hence the east. Ra is the Sun at noon. Atum is the
setting Sun and hence the west. Anubis is gatekeeper of the underworld
and, since in the flat land of Egypt, the underworld was reached by crossing
the horizon, Anubis became synonymous with the horizon. In hawk form Isis
used her breath to bring life back to the restored body of Her husband
Osiris.

O Isis! Lady of Life!
You are most gracious.
You have heard my prayers and answered.
You have given me that which I most
desired.

So I fled from Kheperi the transformer
And sought Atum where he met with Anubis
To find a Magus – a
healer with a knife
To
part me from that which was mine and not mine.

And I found him in a land of pine and roses
at the world’s
rim
And Kheperi the transformer followed me
And as he pushed
his sun-dung hindwards from his burrow
To
rise and become Ra
So
was I transformed in glad wakefulness
And
became mistress of my life.

O Isis! Lady of Light!
To you be praise given.
You have heard my prayers and answered.
Hawklike you have breathed new life in me.
Your wings protecting
You have fulfilled
my desires.
O Isis! Lady of Life!
You know my dreams and grant me truth.

Invocation of the Goddess (Pentacle Invocation)

After my sojourn with Isis, I immersed myself in witchcraft
and, as a result, wrote some pieces suitable for ritual use. The majority
are too weak to stand publicity but the Invocation and the Charge that
follows it are among the better examples of my work at this time. The first
verse follows an earth invoking pentagram (hence the title) earth, water,
air, fire, spirit. For those unfamiliar, Drawing Down the Moon involves
the officiating priest drawing the energy of the Goddess down into the
officiating priestess. This can be a profound experience for the priestess
concerned, as I can confirm. However, there are dangers and it should never
be done lightly and only with reverence after proper
study and preparation.

Charge of the Goddess

The Charge is normally recited by the priestess who has had the Moon drawn
down into her. The original was written by Doreen Valiente and put into
modern language by Starhawk, to both of whom I owe a debt of gratitude.
However, I had real problems with the original and so wrote my own versions,
of
which
this
is the third
and
nearest
to
what I felt at the time. Now, in particular, I'm not so sure that the good-warm-light
and bad-cold-dark correlation is necessarily correct.

I hear your soul’s call
and I am with you,
For I am always with you.
Call Me by any name and I will answer,
For I am wisdom’s Queen.
I hold all,
I encompass all.

Honour Me in all things you do,
In gladness and in sadness,
In love and pleasure,
And when your heart is full.

I am the spark, the flame that burns in all.
My hand is in the soft breeze,
And in the Dragon’s fire.
My touch can be loving, freezing, burning,
For I am Life and Death in One Being,
All is Mine and Mine is Everything.

For I am in all things as all things are born of Me,
And as all are born of Me, to Me they must resolve.
Without Me there is no light, no feeling, no passion, no thought
All is darkness.
Within Me there is warmth and loving and passion and freedom
All is light.

There is no secret,
If you feel not My Spirit in you,
Then you cannot know Me.

I am the beginning as I have always been,
And I am the ending as I will always be,
For I am the source of your immortality,
And the mirror of your soul.